I made my earlier post about video game history into a Prezi, so it's interactive and easy to understand.
Analysis Of Game Covers
The other ancillary task is to produce a game cover for our games package. I believe the best way to ensure the game cover created for our games package was attractive was to look at recent game covers for games released recently.
In this game cover for Grand Theft Auto V for PS4 uses a collage of images representing different features in the game.
Theme
The theme of this game is clearly presented on the game cover from being an acton packed game because it shows lots of things going on. You can see this game has many different features and targets the mass market because of the collage of images.
Age
In the bottom left hand corner, you can clearly see this game is aimed at over 18s. The reason this game has been given a high age restriction is because of the nature of the game.
Gender
The images feature female and male characters showing that both male and female are being targeted by this game.
In this game cover for F1 2012 for PS3, a racing car is featured on the front cover which clearly shows the genre which is a racing game.
Theme
The title and the front cover tells you that it is a non-violent game and it's also a racing game. This means it is appealing to fans of racing games.
Age
There is an age restriction of 3+ which is very low and aimed at a lot of people. This means the age recommendation of this game is to anyone 3+. It's a simple game to play on and has no blood, gore or any nature of violence.
Gender
The colours that are used on the front cover are blue, red and white but blue is appeal to fans of racing defiantly the most outstanding colour on the case. They have done this because they are targeting the game mainly towards the male gender. It is stereotypical games. that a male is on the front of the F1 cover because males are the only gender that race F1 cars.
Grand Theft Auto V
Theme
The theme of this game is clearly presented on the game cover from being an acton packed game because it shows lots of things going on. You can see this game has many different features and targets the mass market because of the collage of images.
Age
In the bottom left hand corner, you can clearly see this game is aimed at over 18s. The reason this game has been given a high age restriction is because of the nature of the game.
Gender
The images feature female and male characters showing that both male and female are being targeted by this game.
F1 2012
In this game cover for F1 2012 for PS3, a racing car is featured on the front cover which clearly shows the genre which is a racing game.Theme
The title and the front cover tells you that it is a non-violent game and it's also a racing game. This means it is appealing to fans of racing games.
Age
There is an age restriction of 3+ which is very low and aimed at a lot of people. This means the age recommendation of this game is to anyone 3+. It's a simple game to play on and has no blood, gore or any nature of violence.
Gender
The colours that are used on the front cover are blue, red and white but blue is appeal to fans of racing defiantly the most outstanding colour on the case. They have done this because they are targeting the game mainly towards the male gender. It is stereotypical games. that a male is on the front of the F1 cover because males are the only gender that race F1 cars.
A Magazine Advertisement
Advertising is an important process for any company who wants to promote their product. It is vital that the advert showcases your product in way sun that it persuades whoever looks at it to want to buy it. As one of my ancillary tasks is to create a magazine advertisement. I thought it was best to look at examples of magazine advertisements for video games and found this one below.
A magazine advert created in 1997
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| StarWars Advert in 1997 |
Key Features about this Advertisement:-
A magazine advert created in 2007
Key Features about this Advertisement:-
- Straightaway you see the character in the middle dominates the advert and stands out to the reader
- Big titles and caps are used to emphasise certain text on the advertisement. "BECOME A JEDI MASTER WITHOUT EVER LEAVING HOME." is a persuasive technique used to encourage the reader to want the product.
- The logo in the top left hand corner can easily be recognised due to its size and being on white back ground makes it standout on the page with "JEDI ARENA" in red underneath also standing out so the reader clearly knows what advert is promoting.
A magazine advert created in 2007
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| Assassins Creed II Advert in 2007 |
- The big titling saying "Assassins Creed II" stands out so that the reader knows straight away what the advert is promoting
- The image of the hand with the Tekko is in the bottom the right hand corner and clearly dominates the page
- The dark colours used gives the reader an idea of the eerie theme the game connotes.
- The images at the bottom are logos telling the reader the developers involved who created the game.
The Main Change In 10 Years
I looked at two different magazine advertisements created 10 years apart which allowed me to compare how magazine adverts have changed over 10 years. The main change you can see on both of these advertisements is that the one in 1997 contains more information about the game compared to the one in 2007. I believe this is due to the increase in the number of users using social media, and so therefore game companies inform gamers using sites like Facebook and Twitter. They will also use YouTube to broadcast information about the game rather than rely on paper advertising.History Of Video Game Distribution
Timeline of how video game distribution has changed over time.
1980s
Before internet connections became popular, there were few services for digital distribution of games. Physical media was the dominant method of delivering video games. One of the first examples of digital distribution in video games was GameLine, which operated during the early 1980s.
1990s
Distribution to console started would appear in the 90s. In 1988, Nintendo introduced the Famicom Modem.
2000s
By this time, internet connections were fast and numerous enough such that digital distribution of games and other related content became viable.
Consoles
Consoles allowed video game companies to distribute on a number of platforms including their own. They did this via the internet as consoles were becoming 'internet-enabled'. Furthermore, this would allow additional content to be added to the main game, such as maps, weapons, and in-game clothing. To many gamers this was known as DLC (Downloadable Content).
Microsoft Windows
PC gaming also become popular because of the number of internet connections soared at during the 2000s period. In 2004, there was a rise in the number of digital distribution services on PC, such as Amazon digital services, GameStop, Games for Windows. The valve co-operation then released their own platform called Steam where gamers was able to buy and download games they would normally play on their consoles e.g. Call of Duty or the Grand Theft Auto series were amongst the most popular. This service then became more and more popular enabling users to buy games from independent developers and major distributors. Steam has become the most popular and largest digital distributor for video games with over 40 million users using the service.
Mobile Gaming
Digital distribution is the dominant method of delivering content on mobile platforms such as iOS devices and Android phones. The increase in the number of mobile users who use iOS and Android phones has allowed developers to create and distribute games on this platform.
What is Digital Distribution?
In the video game industry, digital distribution is the process of delivering video game content as digital information, without the exchange or purchase of new physical media.
To facilitate the sales of video games, various game companies have created their own platforms for digital distribution. Platforms such as Steam, Origin and Xbox Live Marketplace, provide services to purchase and download digital content for either specific games consoles or to PCs.
The image above represents different ways video game companies distribute their products. I believe the most efficient and effective way to distribute is directly to the retailer then to the gamer. This is because well known retailers will help with the marketing for the new game and so therefore will bring in higher profit.
To facilitate the sales of video games, various game companies have created their own platforms for digital distribution. Platforms such as Steam, Origin and Xbox Live Marketplace, provide services to purchase and download digital content for either specific games consoles or to PCs.
How many gamers are there?
There a lot of gamers in the world. More than 1.2 billion people are playing games worldwide. Of these, 700 million are online gamers. This amounts to about 44% to the worlds population.
The above image shows that the male gender is most popular and also shows different genres for different genders. This will help us when we decide on the genre and then from the genre chosen, it will give us an idea of who our target audience could be.
The above image shows that the male gender is most popular and also shows different genres for different genders. This will help us when we decide on the genre and then from the genre chosen, it will give us an idea of who our target audience could be.
Popular Platforms & Genres
I carried out research into the most popular genre for games. We found that action was at the top which is similar to what we found when we researched the popular games. It also gave a number of games which was released in 2015 and this showed which genre was most popular.
Also, this source contained statistics on the number of games released on different platforms. I found that IOS had the most games released being 252 and android also having 252 games released. Then PC and game consoles such as PS4 and xbox one. From these figure it could suggest that the demand for number of mobile gamers is going up, and this could be why there a lot of games being released.
Source: http://uk.ign.com/articles/2015/09/18/tgs-2015-the-most-popular-game-platforms-and-genres
Also, this source contained statistics on the number of games released on different platforms. I found that IOS had the most games released being 252 and android also having 252 games released. Then PC and game consoles such as PS4 and xbox one. From these figure it could suggest that the demand for number of mobile gamers is going up, and this could be why there a lot of games being released.
Source: http://uk.ign.com/articles/2015/09/18/tgs-2015-the-most-popular-game-platforms-and-genres
Top games for 2014/15
I did some research into what the top games for 2014/15, too see what type of games were most popular. It also enabled me to see why sort of genre people were most into and what type of content was popular.
I found that having an element of multiplayer so players could play with there friends online is extremely popular. Also, action packed games were also amongst the most popular which suggests that the poplar games contain action.
I then went onto research the top games for consoles.
I also found that having a multiplayer feature was popular so that players are able to play online with their friends. I also found the genres were similar to PC games which suggests that players may prefer using a controller to play the game rather than using a mouse and keyboard.
Source: http://www.stuff.tv/top-10/games
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